


Bait and Switch

by blackkat



Series: Tumblr Drabbles [26]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Implied Bad Future, and snark, really this is just bickering, that's already happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-12 18:55:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10497414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: “You suspect he’s up to something and youmade him your lieutenant? What the hell, Shinji? Are you a complete moron?”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Swinging Pendulum](https://archiveofourown.org/works/855577) by [cywscross](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cywscross/pseuds/cywscross). 



“You suspect he’s up to something and you _made him your lieutenant?_ What the hell, Shinji? Are you a complete moron?”

Shinji glares at his friend over the rim of his sake cup. “Shut up, Kensei, I’m being clever. At least this way I can keep an eye on him, yeah? If he does anything, or starts making plan t’ overthrow the Seireitei or whatever, I’ll notice.”

Kensei’s flat, supremely unimpressed stare speaks volumes as to what he thinks of that idea. After a moment of Shinji blithely ignoring him, though, he settles for getting his point across with a roll of his eyes and says, “He’s a genius and shit, right? Finished the Academy courses in under two years?”

“Brat got his shikai in the first three months,” Shinji confirms, taking a gulp of sake and relishing the mellow burn as it races down his throat. “The zanjutsu instructor was all in raptures—I’ve never seen the bastard so close t’ actually complimenting someone.” He pauses again, gaze dropping to his cup as his mouth tightens, and he reaches for the bottle with a grimace. “He’s hiding something, Kensei, an’ I don’t like it. Kid that powerful, that smart? It ain’t natural t’ hold back so much. And—“

A flicker of reiatsu appearing cuts him off. It’s not much, just a polite announcement of a high-ranked shinigami’s presence, but Shinji’s grimace gets even sourer. Kensei raises an eyebrow, even as soft footsteps approach the door to the captain’s office. There’s a pause, and then a light knock.

“Captain Hirako?” a voice asks, the next best thing to flat.

Blowing out an aggrieved sigh, Shinji waves at the door. “In, in, brat. Don’t loom in the hallway, yeah?”

There’s a soft snort as the door slides open, and Kensei’s other eyebrow inches up to join the first as he takes in the young man standing there. He’s just about Shinji’s height, lean, with brilliant hair the color of a daylily. But, to put it bluntly—not that Shinji would ever put it another way—Shinji’s new lieutenant looks like he got chewed up, spat out, and then stomped on a few times for good measure. Scars climb the skin of his throat, from the collar of his uniform up his cheeks, wide and faded to silvery-white, all of them maliciously deliberate. A particularly wide and long one cuts straight down from his hairline, over his miraculously whole left eye, and disappears under his shoulder-length hair somewhere near his ear. He’s wearing gloves, too, but with the loose sleeves of the shihakusho they don’t quite manage to hide the way the scars run up his arms as well.

Shinji’s never seen the kid out of uniform, either a shihakusho or a student’s whites, but he’s more than willing to bet a month’s pay that there are yet more scars underneath the cloth.

Nevertheless, the boy simply raises one brow—the bisected one—at the two captains. Mostly at his own. “Lieutenant Kurosaki Ichigo reporting for duty, Captain. Should I assume that the pile of _your_ work on _my_ desk is my welcome-to-the-division present, sir?” he asks, voice dust-dry and mouth tipping down in an aggrieved half-grimace. It pulls strangely at his scars.

Shinji beams at him, all teeth, and toasts him with his sake cup. “Ah, I knew ye were smart, Berry-chan!”

That earns him an entirely insubordinate eye-roll. The lieutenant shifts his gaze to Kensei, and it’s only because Shinji is watching him closely that he catches the flicker of emotion in the boy’s eyes. Not enough to tell what it is, exactly, but Kurosaki has a tight enough rein on his emotions that even a glimpse is a victory. Amusement, Shinji thinks. Or regret. Maybe some sort of quickly concealed pain, though things like that are usually harder to hide.

“Captain Muguruma,” Kurosaki says, inclining his head faintly before looking back at Shinji. His eyes—a near-golden sort of amber, and just as strange as the rest of him—are cool and composed, but Shinji’s perceptive enough to know that there’s a storm raging under the faintly irritated mask. He just can’t tell what it’s a storm _of_. “Captain Hirako. I’ll get those forms back to you by the end of the day. You _do_ remember that you’re supposed to sign all of them, right? _Every single one._ ” With a smile that’s more like a baring of teeth, the lieutenant inclines his head, ignores Shinji’s sudden spluttering, and steps back into the hall, sliding the door closed with just a little too much force to be entirely polite.

The silence stretches in his wake, Shinji trailing off with a mutter, and then Kensei says flatly, “You’re suspicious of him because he’s a passive-aggressive bastard who doesn’t kowtow and isn’t trying to kiss your ass?”

“Well, when ye put it like that it sounds stupid,” Shinji huffs, crossing his arms. “He’s an _Academy student_ , he’s supposed to genuflect to his superiors, yeah?”

Kensei resettles himself against the wall, and Shinji’s fairly certain that he rolls his eyes, too. “Not anymore, he’s not,” he points out. “You made him your _lieutenant_ , and I still say you’re an idiot for doing it just because you suspect he’s ‘up to something’.”

Shinji doesn’t appreciate the mocking quotes. He puffs up indignantly, glaring at his friend. “Well, he didn’t do it when he was a student, either, and that’s creepy!”

“Your face is creepy,” Kensei retorts, like the mature adult he is. “Shinji, you’re a neurotic basket-case. The kid looks like he wants to murder you in your sleep—and I would, too, if you dumped all of your work on me—but an evil mastermind? I think he’d have to stop scowling for more than three seconds for something like that to work.”

Shinji is willing to concede that this is a valid point, even though he’s not about to tell Kensei that. There’s also the fact that, by all accounts, Kurosaki Ichigo is a complete loner. He appeared out of the Rukongai on the day of the Academy’s entrance exams, passed them with near-perfect scores, and went on to become a shut-in bookworm and training-obsessed workaholic, spending every spare moment in the practice halls or the library. Shinji’s asked around, and none of the other students ever really remembered speaking to him, let alone interacting with him in any meaningful sort of way.

So maybe taking over the Seireitei isn’t his end goal. Still, Shinji’s not about to give up so easily. The brat’s hiding something, that much is eminently clear, and he wants to know what it is.

“Sake,” Shinji declares, rising to his feet and making a beeline for the liquor cabinet on the far wall. “Brat’s gonna drive me t’ drink anyway, so I might as well get a head start.”

Kensei eyes him dubiously, but accepts the bottle Shinji thrusts at him regardless.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Unfought](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10745001) by [Glaux_Bryonia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glaux_Bryonia/pseuds/Glaux_Bryonia)




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